Needing Rose Tyler
by Paperclip-Assassin
Summary: '"What about you?" he pushed, avoiding her eyes and staring straight ahead instead as they walked along the cliffs. "Are you happy?" "I am now," she said softly.' -A long overdue conversation between the Doctor and Rose after they are reunited. TenxRose fluff. One-shot.


Hey everyone

I haven't been in the fandom that long (two months maybe?) but I'm good at marathon-ing shows so yea. I loved Chris Eccleston and Matt Smith, they're awesome Doctors... but David Tennant captured my heart by sleeping his way through The Christmas Invasion, okay? Okay.

I ship Ten and Rose so hard. They make me cry. That's why I tried writing this, it's just a random fix-it because those two need to be together. I wanted to know if I can write Doctor Who fics because before I only ever wrote fics for two fandoms. (I also attempted to write a Supernatural fic a couple of days ago, though, so I'm getting braver I guess.)

Well, enough of this, no one's interested in that nonsensical rambling of mine.

Please read on and tell me if it's acceptable or if it made you want to throw up, thanks. ;)

Disclaimer: There's so many things I don't own. Doctor Who is one of them.

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**Needing Rose Tyler**

He had not the faintest idea how it happened, no matter how hard he used that superior Time Lord brain of his. It was impossible, yet he saw it clearly, the very matter of the air a couple of yards away changing completely, showing first a vague shadow shape but soon forming a recognizable person.  
And even though he couldn't believe it- shouldn't believe it, for the sake of his hearts- he already felt hope bubbling up in his chest.

When the absolutely cheerful humming of the TARDIS confirmed his hopes he felt like a drowning man being thrown a life jacket.

It was really her, wasn't it? His Rose. His beautiful, radiant pink and yellow Rose, materialising right there before his eyes and defying all laws of time and space in doing so. The Time Lord, usually driven by rationality and logic, threw all thoughts out the window and broke into sprint toward his little human. He was sure that at least one of his hearts stopped once he realised she was running too. The collision was everything but comfortable, knocking the breath out of the both of them, but neither cared. They were together again. Against all odds she had found her way back into his arms. And Rassilon, he had never been more glad that Rose Tyler never played by the same set of rules as everyone else.

"Rose," he breathed into her as they stood in a tight embrace, neither prepared to let go for a while. It was odd, having her back just like that, without explanation, but a good kind of odd. It was fantastic, really, he thought as he stroked her back, cherishing the way their bodies fit together.

"Doctor." She whispered back, her words muffled by the fabric of his suit. "My Doctor."  
His hearts did somersaults but his curiosity was slowly winning over. He grabbed her shoulders and gently pushed her back far enough to look into her eyes.

"How can you be here?"

Rose smiled gently at him, one hand reaching up to cup his face. The Time Lord leaned into the touch. "I am Bad Wolf. It is impossible to take it all away from me because it is me and I am it... Don't look at me like that!" she was referring to the sceptical frown on his face. "Believe me, Doctor, at first I wouldn't believe it either... but you, the duplicate you, I mean... said there was a very realistic chance that the energy of the Time Vortex was still inside me in some form, waiting until it was needed. And I needed it because you needed me."

"Can you just bunny hop between dimension as you please?" He was genuinely interested what his human version had come up with.

"'S not that easy."

"It never is," he agreed. "How did you find me?"

Rose chuckled and it was the most beautiful sound in the universe. "Stab in the dark, actually. This was our first trip together after you regenerated. The New New Doctor in New New York, no?"

His eyes drifted past her head to the skyline in the distance and he nodded in understanding, speculating wistfully if that had been the reason for the TARDIS to more or less crash land on New Earth. "You are amazing, Rose Tyler," he said finally when he met her eyes again.

"I learned from the best," she replied, looking at him earnestly before burying her face in the fabric of his suit again.

"How's Tony and your mum?" the Doctor asked casually as he silently asked her to walk with him, offering his hand in a familiar finger-wiggling gesture. She accepted it with a smile, interlacing their fingers.

"Oh, you miss my mum, don't you, Doctor?" she teased, giving him her infamous Rose Tyler trademarked tongue-in-teeth grin. He pulled a face for her amusement.

"Nah... Well, maybe a little. Sometimes. _Rarely_."

"Shut up," said Rose, "And she's fine. As are Tony and Pete. They're a perfectly happy family." He didn't quite miss the slightly bitter edge her voice held.

"What about you?" he pushed, avoiding her eyes and staring straight ahead instead as they walked along the cliffs. "Are you happy?"

"I am now," she said softly, squeezing his hand. That's when he decided he absolutely needed to know, stopping his casual pace so abruptly that Rose took a few more steps until coming to a halt herself, wind blowing strands of her hair into her face.

"What's it like? Being with me, I mean? Having a life?"

The blonde stared at him intently for the longest of moments until she replied. "You're asking an awful lot of questions, Doctor. Remember: Curiosity killed the cat-nun."

"That, Rose Tyler, was a terrible joke and you know it!" the Doctor said between fits of laughter. Rose chimed in and they just laughed for the sake of it until her expression grew serious again.

" To answer your question... it's painful. I look at him and I see you, because he looks so much like you... and yet he's so different. You know, he's not even wearing the suit."

"_Outrageous_," the Doctor commented to ease the tension but pressed his lips together when his words earned him a hurt glare from Rose.

"It's not just that," she continued, "he also likes his hair shorter and he never uses stupid French phrases or talks at the speed of light. He's so very... _human_."

The Time Lord felt like crying. "But Rose, that's what you _deserve_! Don't you see? He can give you the life you could never have with me! ...We need to get you back. He needs you."

"No." Her voice held a dominant tone he had never heard in it before and he guessed it had something to do with Bad Wolf. "He doesn't. That's the whole point, Doctor, _no one_ in Pete's World needs me! I don't belong there. Mum has Pete and Tony and that wonderful house and she goes to Yoga class with her friends and has tea parties and whatnot, she doesn't need me around anymore. I know she loves me, but she doesn't _need_ me."

"The other me does," insisted the Doctor stubbornly, causing the blonde to groan in utter frustration.

"_No!_" she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the alien. "We're not even _together_ like that. It didn't feel right. We work at Torchwood together and we're friends and all, but that's it. He's. Not. _You_. And if you tell me that one more time, I will slap you into another century, because I know for a fact that you- The Timelord from Gallifrey that you are- need _me_- Rose Tyler, the human from Planet Earth."

The Doctor, usually so verbose, was dead silent for a solid eight and a half minutes- _he'd counted_.  
This wasn't right. She was supposed to have a wonderfully happy life with him, not feel out of place. He had left her in a Universe where she didn't belong and she had very likely missed him every single second just as much as he had missed her. He swallowed hard, unsure what to do next. It dawned on him that she had kept a crucial piece of information to herself.

"You can't go back to Pete's World." He didn't need to ask, it was a statement.

The blonde shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "Never. And even if I could, I wouldn't."

"Don't say that, Rose." He was so close to giving in, throwing all of his rules out the window like he had done on Mars. "We'll get you back to Jackie somehow."

"So that you can just run off again? Don't even think about it." He should have expected the outburst, but her fury still took him by surprise. "I've watched you die- the old you, I mean- I thought I'd lost you several times and you... you left me on that bloody beach in Norway not once but _twice_." Her voice grew soft and she stepped forward until she could rest both hands over his hearts. "I'm sorry Doctor, but you don't get to leave me there a third time. I won't let you."

It was her complete honesty that made him come undone.

Without a word or any warning of another sort he pressed his lips to hers. She met him with equal softness and for the first time they were really kissing each other, there was no Cassandra and no Doctor duplicate, just Rose Tyler and her Time Lord. He couldn't hold back, overwhelmed by the sheer bliss he felt, and noticed a bit too late that his mind was reaching out to her, wanting to share his emotions the Time Lord way.

Rose gasped at the unfamiliar sensation but understood without a word of explanation, a single Gallifreyan word flooding her mind like a tsunami. It was the Doctor's name. She pulled away slightly, needing to look him in the eye for what she had to say.

"I love you."

_And I you_, he told her through the mind connection, _I should have told you so long ago. I love you, Rose Tyler._

"Let's go to the TARDIS," Rose said, longingly looking at the blue police box in the distance. "Let's go home."

"This is usually the moment where a 'stupid French phrase' comes in handy," the alien told his little pink and yellow girl mockingly.

She brushed her lips against his in a chaste kiss and whispered, "Allons-y."

He hugged her tightly, spinning her around before setting her down again and taking her hand in his. "Run!" he told her and took off, pulling her with him. It felt so familiar and yet everything had changed. With every look he sent her, with every touch, with every word he showed her that he wasn't holding back any longer, that yes he did indeed need her.

And when they were aboard the TARDIS like they had been back when everything had been fine and she asked him how long they would be together, he looked at her and answered with a smile.

"Forever. That's what you promised."

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_please review :)_


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